'V.:i>. ; " i-W^;'*, . 



NAPOLIS 

HISTORY OF YE AMCIENTCITT 
AND ITS PUBLIC BUILDINGS 



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•-* ■^^■'^i 



ALBERT C. RITCHIE. Governor 

PHILIP B. PERLMAN, - - Secretary of State 




PUBLISHED AND DISTRIBUTED BY 
ORDER OF THE GOVERNOR 



Compiled hs ■ HON. OSWALD TILGHMAN 



ANNAPOLIS I 

HISTORY OF YE ANCIENT 

CITY AND ITS PUBLIC 

BUILDINGS 



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Qirr 

F. REGIS NOEL 
JAN. 3, 1937 






ANNAPOLIS. 



History of Ye Ancient City 

AND ITS 

Public Buildings. 

The famous Toleration Act, known .. 
the Act concerning Religion, passed by 
the General Assembly of the Province of 
Maryland at Saint Mary's in 16^9, ''the 
proudest memorial of Maryland's Colon- 
ial history," attracted to the shores of 
the Severn river its earliest white set- 
tlers. It was in this vear that ten fami- 
lies of Puritans from Nansemond coun 
ty, Virginia, headed by Richard Bennett 
and Edward Lloyd, having been pre- 
sented by the Sheriff of that county for 
seditions sectuaries, for not repairing to 
their church and for refusing to hear 
common prayer, sought religious tolera- 
tion in ]\raryland. They sailed up the 
Chesapeake Bay and established them- 
selves on the peninsula where Annapolis 
now stands. They called their settle- 
ment Providence, and, in the following 



[Fivel 



year, 1650, sent delegates to the Assem- 
bly at St. ]\Iary's, which passed an Act 
"erecting Providence into a county by 
the name of Ann Arundel, in honor of 
Lady Baltimore, the wife of Cecilius 
Calvert, with Edward Lloyd as com- 
mander. The success of the Cromwel- 
lian rebellion in England, about this 
time, caused the Marvland Puritans to 
yield obedience to Cromwell, and re- 
nounce allegiance to Lord Baltimore. 
The struggles between Puritan and Cav- 
alier, then being waged in England, was 
now to have its counterpart in Mary- 
land, culminating in the 

BATTLE OF THE SEVERN. 

On Sunday, March 25th, 1655, Lord 
Baltimore's Governor, AVilliam Stone, 
with an army of 150 men from St. 
Mary's, was defeated and captured by 
the Puritans, under the command of 
Captain William Fuller at Horn Point, 
now Eastport, just below Annapolis. 
Several of Stone's officers were executed 
and for a time the Puritans were in con- 
trol of the Colony. Three years later, 
however. Lord Baltimore regained con- 



[Six] 



trol of the Government of the Province, 
and the Puritans quietly acknowledged 
his authority. 

ANNAPOLIS IN EARLY COLONIAL 

DAYS. 

In 169^ the capital was removed from 
St. ]\Iary's to Ann Arundel Town, which 
by Act of 1695, Chapter 7, was given the 
name of Annapolis. A few years after 
Annapolis became the Capital, a writer 
describing this town, says: "Colonel 
Nicholson has done his endeavors to 
make a town of that place. There are 
about forty dwelling houses in it, seven 
or eight of which can afford a good lodg- 
ing and accommodations for strangers. 
There are also a ^State House, and a free 
school, built of brick, which makes a 
great show among a parcel of wooden 
houses, and the foundation of a church 
is laid, the only brick church in Marj^- 
land. " This church stood upon the site 
of the present Saint Anne's Church. 
The free school was King Williams' 
school, built during the reign of William 
and ^lary, and completed in 1701, St. 
John's College was the outgrowth of 



ISevenl 



this school. In 1708, Aiiuapolis was 
granted a charter as a City, by Queen 
Anne, on her accession to the throne of 
England, and for whom the town had 
previoush' been named when she was 
Princess Anne. Between this period and 
the revolution Annapolis became the 
centre of refined and attractive society, 
noted for its gaiety and intelligence, 
which gained for it the title of "The 
Athens of America." 

ANNAPOLIS DURING THE 
REVOLUTION. 

William Eddis, a noted ^laryland 
Tory during the Revolution, in a letter 
to Governor Robert Eden, then in Eng- 
land, written from New York Julv 23rd, 
1777, gives an interesting description of 
the defences of Annapolis at that date. 
Eddis says, ''The temper of the leading 
men in Maryland still continues to be 
guided by a spirit of rancour and vio- 
lence ; they appear confident of succeed- 
ing in their favorite scheme of Inde- 
pendence, but if conclusions may be 
drawn from favorable appearances, the 
majority of the people are disgusted 

[Eight] 



with the conduct of their Rulers and' 
ardently wish for a restoration of legal; 
government. 

"Annapolis has assumed a vei/ differ- 
ent appearance since your Excellency 
left it. They have formed a battery 
from Mr. Walter Dulany's lot round the 
water's edge to the Granary adjoining 
vour Garden : the cannon are mostly 18- 
pounders, the works appear strong, and 
I am told are so. From your wharf to 
the hill where Callihorne lived they have 
thrown up a covered way to communis 
cate with that part of the town adjacent 
to the dock. They have another fortifi- 
cation on Hill's Point and a third on Mr. 
Kerr's land, on the North side of the- 
Severn, on a high cliff called Beaumont's 
Point. Three companies of artillery are 
stationed at the respective forts, and in 
spite of experience, they talk confidently 
of making vigorous resistance in case of 
an attack. ' ' 

Governor Eden's house stood in the 
present grounds of the U. S. Naval 
Academy, a little above where the new 
Armory building stands. 






THE STATE HOUSE. 

The present State House is the third 
one that has stood upon the same site. 
The foundation of the first State House 
was laid April 30, 1696, shortly after the 
removal of the Capital from St. Mary's 
to Annapolis. In June. 1697, as is shown 
by Chapter 6, of the Acts of that year, 
this building was so well advanced as to 
be set apart for public use. The officers 
in charge were Francis Nicholson, Gov- 
ernor; Hon. Sir Thomas Lawrence, bar- 
onet. Secretary; Hon. Kenelm Chesel- 
dyne, Commissary General. Struck by 
lightning in 1699, and entirely consumed 
by fire in 1704, the first State House had 
but a brief existence. This gave Gover- 
nor Seymour occasion to say, ''I never 
saw a public building left entirely to 
Providence but in Maryland." The sec- 
ond State House was finished in 1706. It 
was an oblong square, entered by a hall, 
a cupola surmounting it. It was used 
for sixty-six years, when replaced by the 
present one in 1772. On the north side 
of it stood an Armory, which was also 
''he ball room. This Armory appears in 



[Ten] 



the small halftone picture of the present 
State House, here reproduced, from the 
frontispiece of Ridgely's Annals of An- 
napolis, 184:0. as it appeared in the year 
17S9. 

David Ridpfelv, in his ' ' Annals of An- 
napolis, '' published in 1841, in his de- 
scription of the State House, says : ' ' The 
hill on which stands this noble edifice is 
enclosed by a neat and substantial gran- 
ite wall, surmounted bv a handsome iron 
railing, which is entered by three gates, 
one situated at the head of Francis 
street and in front of the building, the 
second to the southwest and the third to 
the northeast of the circle. ' ' These gates 
were securely locked at night and a cou- 
ple of fierce watch dogs were turned 
loose inside. 

In 1769, the General Assembly appro- 
priated the sum of 7,500 pounds sterling 
to be applied to the building of the third 
and present State House, and appointed 
the following Building Committee : Dan- 
iel Dulany, Thomas Johnson, John Hall, 
William Paca, Charles Carroll, barrister, 
Lancelot Jacques and Charles Wallace. 



[Eleven'i 





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[Twelve] 



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^^^^^^^^^'^^^'^^^^^^'^i^^^'^^:^^^'^^^^^^^!^^^^:^^^^!^ ^ 



The foundation stone of this edifice was 
laid on the 28th day of March. 1772, by 
the last colonial Governor, Robert Eden. 
On his striking the stone with a mallet, 
as was the custom, tradition informs us 
there was a severe clap of thunder from 
a clear sky. It was thought to have been 
an omen of the impending Revolution. 
This omen was realized, for two years 
later, when this building was ready for 
occupancy, it was a revolutionary body 
that first assembled within its walls. 
They styled themselves the "Association 
of Freemen." Ninety-one deputies from 
all the counties upon the calling of the 
roll, on May 31st, 1774, answered to 
their names and organized a Convention, 
with Matthew Tilghman, of Talbot coun- 
ty— ''The Patriarch of the Colony" — 
presiding. It was a most distinguished 
body of the colonial gentry of all Mary- 
land, who evinced their patriotism by 
passing a series of resolutions denying 
the right of the British Parliament to 
tax their American colonies without rep- 
resentation, demanding the repeal of the 
duty laid on tea, and offering assistance 
to the then blockaded port of Boston. 



^Thirteen'} 




[Fourteen] 



They addressed a letter to the Virgmia 
Committee of Correspondence proposing 
a Congress of delegates from all the 13 
colonies. This Congress met in Phila- 
delphia on September 5tli, 1774, at Car- 
penter's Hall, and Maryland was the 
first of the colonies to elect delegates to 
it. The Continental Congress met again 
on May 10th, 1775, and on June 15th, 
1775, Colonel George Washington of 
Virginia, was nominated by a Maryland 
deput}^ Thomas Johnson, Jr., Comman- 
der-in-Chief of the Continental Forces. 
A copy of the resolutions promulgated 
by the Association of Freemen of ]\Iary- 
land, with the autograph signatures of 
the signers appended thereto, hangs upon 
the wall of the Old Senate Chamber. 



[Fifteen 




[Sixteen] 



THE DOME OF THE STATE 
HOUSE. 

The interior workmanship on the dome 
was not completed until 1793. Thomas 
Dance, who executed the fresco and 
stucco work on the interior of the dome, 
fell from the scaffold just as he had fin- 
ished the centre piece and was killed. 
This old building is greatly admired for 
its architectural proportions, its com- 
manding site and lofty dome, but its 
chief attractions are its historic associa- 
tions, lioth local and national. Here, on 
December 23rd, 1783, General Washing- 
ton surrendered his commission as Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the American Armies 
to the Continental Congress then in ses- 
sion in the old Senate Chamber, aiid [ike 
the Roman General Cincinnatus, i>.tired 
to the peaceful pursuits of agriculture, 
but onlv to be recalled as the first Presi- 

t. 

dent of the Republic. In this chamber, 
in 1784, the treaty of peace with Great 
Britain was ratified and signed and seal- 
ed in the presence of Congress. Here, 



[Seventeen^ 




[Eighteen] 



HISTORIC OLD SENATE CHAilBER 
MUTILATED IN 1878 — RE- 
STORED IN 1896. 

Maryland and Massachusetts are the 
only ones of the 13 original States which 
can still boast of their original colonial 
Capitols : but from time to time, to sup- 
ply the public needs, additions have 
been made to both these historic build- 
ings, which are entirely out of harmony 
with the originals. In 1878, the Legis- 
lature of IMaryland attempted to mod- 
ernize the whole interior of this ancient 
State House, the old Senate Chamber, 
hallowed bv so manv sacred memories 
and historic associations, was mutilated 
beyond recognition, the attractive gal- 
lerv and lobbv beneath it were torn out, 
the l)is' chimnev with its immense fire 
13laee was taken out, the niche behind 
the chair of the President of the Senate 
was concealed behind heavy curtains, 
the recess seats in the windows removed, 
and the window sashes, with small panes 



[Twenty] 



of glass, were replaced by sashes with 
big panes like shop windows, a desecra- 
tion that was beyond explanation. 

During the administration of Gover- 
nor Edwin Wartield in 1906, a commis- 
sion appointed by him for the purpose, 
restored tliis old Senate Chamber to its 
original appearance in tlie minutest de- 
tail, so that it has become ever since a 
mecca for patriotic societies and pious 
pilgrims, who reverence this spot made 
sacred by its association with the immor- 
tal Washington. 



ITwenty-one'] 



THE OLD TREASURY BUILDING. 

Within the circle enclosing the State 
House stands a quaint old colonial one- 
story brick building of modest propor- 
tions, which invariabl}^ attracts the at- 
tention of the visitor. It is venerable as 
well as memorable, and is supposed to be 
the oldest building in Annapolis. The 
ancient tulip poplar tree standing on the 
campus of St. John's College is the only 
living witness of its building, more than 
two centuries ago. It is built in the shape 
of a Greek cross. The massive lock and 
key and the heavy handmade iron hinges 
on the original entrance door are objects 
of especial interest to all visitors. It was 
originall}^ designed for the accommoda- 
tion of the provincial Governor and his 
Council, as a Council Chamber for the 
Upper House of the Provincial Legisla- 
ture ; the Lower House, or House of Bur- 
gesses, at that time, holding their meet- 
ings in the State House. It was at one 
time used as the Provincial Court Room. 
It was also the Colonial Treasury, and 



[Ttventy-tvjo] 



for mail}' j^ears the office of the State 
Treasurer. It is now the office of the 
County Superintendent of Public Educa- 
tion. 

ANNAPOLIS BUILT THE FIRST 
THEATRE IN AMERICA. 

Dunlop, in liis history of the Ameri- 
can Theatre, says: ''Annapolis has the 
honor of having erected the first theatre, 
the first temple to the dramatic Muse. 
Of this fact there can be no doubt, for 
as early as 1752 a theatre was built here 
in Avhich were performed some of Shake- 
speare 's best plays." 



ITwenty- three'} 



DE KALB MONUMENT. 

There stands upon Capitol Hill, on 
the southeast side of the historic old 
State House in the ancient city of An- 
napolis, a beautiful bronze statue, of 
heroic size, of a Brigadier in the armies 
of France and a ^Major General in the 
American Army of the Revolution, the 
Baron de Kalb, who fell mortallv wound- 
ed in the Battle of Camden, South Caro- 
lina, on the 16th of August, 1780, while 
leading the remnant of the IMaryland 
line and a few Delaware troops against 
a superior force commanded by Lord 
Cornwallis. The General is shown as 
stepping forward, leading a charge on 
foot, with his sword Avaved aloft, while 
the head is turned in the direction of the 
confused Continentals, in the act of an 
impassioned call to rally to his support. 
The moment chosen is a historically 
great one, and the sculptor has rendered 
it well. The statue is the work of 
Ephraim Keyser, a young Maryland art- 
ist, and was erected by the United States 
Government, in accordance with a reso- 
lution of Congress passed in 1780, a few 



[Tuenty-four] 



days after de Kalb's death, August 16^ 
1886, one hundred and five years later^ 
this statue was unveiled. 

BURNING OF THE BRIG PEGGY 
STEWART. 

The throwing overboard of a lot of tea 
in Boston harbor by a band of masked 
men has been heralded in every History 
of the United States as one of the most 
heroic acts that led up to the American 
Revolution, but it fades into insignifi- 
cance when compared with the burning^ 
of the Peggy Stewart on Oct. 19, 1774, in. 
the harbor of Annapolis, the first overt 
act of the Maryland Colonists against 
the King. This vessel had arrived in 
Annapolis a few days prior to this event 
from London, having on board an assort- 
ed cargo of merchandise, among which 
were seventeen packages of tea, some- 
thing over a ton in weight, the odious- 
duty upon which had been paid by her 
owner, Mr. Stewart. A band of libertv- 
loving patriots from the western section 
of Anne Arundel countv, later known as 
the Hills of Howard, headed bv Dr. 
Charles Alexander Warfield, hearing of 



{Twenty-^vel 



■*:*^*''h*if:*^i*i*ifi*^i*:fi*:*i*:*i*:h^^^^^^^^^^ifif:fihf:fifit:fififif^fl^ 



the arrival of this Brig, with tea on 
board, rode on horseback to Annapolis 
with the avowed purpose of burning this 
vessel and cargo. These brave men, in- 
stead of wearing masks, each wore a 
printed label on his hat band bearing the 
motto, "Liberty and Independence or 
Death in Pursuit of it." Major War- 
field at the head of his troopers, in broad 
daylight, Avaited on ]\Ir. Anthony Stew- 
art and addressing him said, "We have 
come to offer you the choice of two prop- 
ositions, you must either go with us and 
fire 3^our own vessel, or hang by the hal- 
ter at- your own door. Stewart was at 
first bold and defiant. By way of intimi- 
dation a gallows was erected, when, be- 
lieving they were about to carry their 
threats into execution, Stewart took a 
burning chunk of wood from his open 
fireplace in his house and with his own 
hand set fire to his ship and watched 
its total destruction, together with its 
entire cargo. Exactly seven years there- 
after, to a day, American Independence 
was assured by the surrender of the 
army of Cornwallis at Yorktown. 



[Twenty-six] 



MARYLAND STATE FLAG. 

The flag of the State bears the es- 
cutcheon of the great seal — the Calvert 
and Crossland arms quartered. The de- 
vice seems to have been adopted by com- 
mon consent, as there was no formal 
adoption of any design as the official flag- 
of the State until 1904. To Mr. James 
W. Thomas, of Cumberland, Md., the 
author of ' ' Chronicles of Colonial Mary- 
land, ' ' is due the credit of the passage of 
the Act of 1904, Chapter 48, ''to formal- 
ly adopt and legalize the Maryland 

flag." 

That the Colony had a distinct flag or 
standard we know. The first recorded 
instance of the use of a Maryland flag 
occurs in Leonard Calvert's report of 
the reduction of Kent Island (February, 
1638), in which he says that he and his 
force marched with Baltimore's banner 
displayed. At the Battle of the Severn, 
in 1655, where the supporters of the pro- 
prietary government, under William 
Stone, the Governor, were defeated by 
the Puritan party under Captain AVill- 
iam Fuller, Stone's forces marched un- 



ITwenty-sevenl 



der the flag of Mainland, borne by Will- 
iam Nugent, ''Standard-bearer of the 
Province/' while Fuller's party display- 
ed the Flag of the Commonwealth, 
charged with the crosses of St. George 
and St. Andrew. It is also said that a 
i\Iaryland flag was carried by the Mary- 
landers who accompanied Braddock's 
expedition against Fort DuQuesne 
(Pittsburgh), in 1755. 

The Maryland Flag, like the great 
seal, was evidently designed and adopt- 
ed by Cecilius, Lord Baltimore, and 
sent out by him with the Colony, as it 
was unfurled and officially used a few 
days after taking formal possession of 
the Province, when Governor Calvert, to 
more forcibly impress the natives, orcler- 
ed the '^Colors to be brought on shore" 
and a military parade. While there does 
not seem to be any distinct record of the 
design of the colonial flag of Maryland, 
it is believed to have been the same as 
the one now in use. Maryland is alsa 
as unique in her State flag as she is in 
her Great Seal, in that it, too, is strictl^r 
of heraldic design, and is an exact reprJ- 



[Twenty-eight] 



duction of the shield or escutcheon upon 
the reverse of the Great Seal of the Pro- 
vince. Apart from its historic interest, 
the ^Maryland Flag, as may be seen from 
the accompanying illustration, posseses 
marked symmetry and beauty. The 
parallel and diagonal lines of the Cal- 
vert quarterings being in singidar har- 
mony with the crosses and transposed 
colors of those of the Crossland arms. 
The combination, too, of the colors of the 
former — gold and black — while in 
brilliant contrast with those of the latter 
quarterings — silver and red — are both 
effective and pleasing. Silver being a 
white metal, the white color is substi- 
tuted for silver in Maryland flags made 
of bunting or silk, and is so provided for 
in the Act of 1904, Chapter 48. When 
painted on panels or printed in colors, 
however, the rich heraldic colors, gold 
and black, silver and gules (blood red), 
should be adhered to. This flag appear- 
ed for the first time printed in the four 
purely heraldic colors in the Maryland 
Manual of 1906, edited by Oswald Tilgh- 
man. Secretarv of State. 



\_Tiventy-nine'] 



THE GREAT SEAL OF MARYLAND. 

The Great Seal and Flag of Maryland 
are so intimately connected the one with 
the other that their history is insepar- 
able. The flag of the State bears the 
escutcheon of the Great Seal — the Cal- 
vert and Crossland arms quartered. 
Maryland is unique in her Great Seal, 
and presents a marked contrast with 
those of the other States of the Ameri- 
can Union, in that it consists of Ar- 
morial bearings of a strictly heraldic 
•character, while the others bear ''em- 
blems indicative of agriculture and com- 
merce, plenty and prosperity, or kindred 
subjects represented in a more or less 
pictorial or allegorical manner." 

The first Great Seal brought over by 
Governor Leonard Calvert, in 1643, was 
''Treacherously and violently taken 
away by Richard Ingle, or his accom- 
plices, in or about February A. D., 1644, 
and hath ever since been so disposed of 
it cannot be recovered." Li 1648, Bal- 
timore sent to the Province, through 
Governor William Stone, a second Great 
Seal cut in silver. The escutcheon bore 



[Thirty] 



the Calvert and Crossland arms quar- 
tered. The first and fourth quarters 
consisted of "six pales" or vertical bars, 
alternately gold and black with a bend 
dexter counter charged — that is, a 
diagonal stripe on which colors are re- 
versed — being the Calvert arms; the 
second and third quarters consisted of a 
quartered field of red and silver charged 
with a Greek, or equal-limbed cross, 
classified as "Bottony" — its arms ter- 
minating in trefoils — and also counter- 
charged, that is, with the colorings re- 
versed, red being on the silver ground 
and silver on the red — the latter quar- 
terings being from the Crossland, Balti- 
more's maternal arms — Alicia Cross- 
land having been the mother of the first 
Baron of Baltimore, George Calvert. 
These quarterings were surmounted by 
an earl's coronet and full-faced helmet, 
which indicated his rank in America as 
that of a Count Palatine — his rank in 
England being that of a Baron only — a 
distinction which no other American 
Colonial charter conferred. On the hel- 
met rested the Calvert crest, a ducal 



[_Thirty-one'\ 



crown, with two half bannerets, one gold 
and one black. The escutcheon was 
supported on one side by the figure of a 
farmer, and the other by that of a fish- 
erman — symbols of each his two estates, 
Marvland and Avalon. Below them was 
a scroll bearing the Calvert motto : 
' ' Fatti maschii Parole Femine ' ' — man- 
ly deeds, womanh^ words, or more strict- 
ly, deeds are males, words, females. Be- 
hind the escutcheons and coronets was 
engraved an ermined-lined mantle, and 
surrounding all, on a border encircling 
the seal, was the legend: "Scuto Bonae 
Yoluntatis tuffi Coronasti Nos" — with 
favor wilt thou compass us as with a 
shield. The heraldic terms used in de- 
scribing the colors in the Calvert arms 
are Or and Sahle, meaning gold and 
black: Oi^ has been so frequently misin- 
terpreted as an abbreviation of Orange, 
that orange and black have been errone- 
ously adopted as the colonial colors of 
Maryland by the leading institutions of 
learning in the State. This error has, 
furthermore, been perpetuated by the 
State itself, for the two circular car- 
toons, depicting in colors both sides of 



[Tlm'ty-two] 




the Great Seal, which have hung on the 
walls of the State House for the past 
thirty-five years, and which Governor 
John Lee Carroll in his message to the 
Legislature of January 7, 1880, states, 
are the work of Robert Goodloe Harper 
Pennington, although artistically exe- 
cuted, has the Calvert colors on the 
escutcheon or shield, orange and black, 
instead of gold and black, and the Cross- 
land colors red and white, instead of red 
and silver. 



iThirty three'] 



THE OBVERSE OF THE GREAT 
SEAL. 

As displayed in the other circular car- 
toon, represents Baron Baltimore as a 
Knight in full armor, with drawn sword 
and helmet decorated with feathers. He 
is mounted on a richly caparisoned 
charger, in full gallop, adorned with his 
paternal coat of arms, below which are 
engraved a strip of seashore, grass and 
flowers; around the whole is an inscrip- 
tion containing his name and titles, ' ' Ce- 
cilius Absolutus Dominus Terrae Mariae 
et Avalonige Baro de Baltemore." 

The Great Seal of the State, or Nation, 
stands as her symbol of honor, and the 
signet by which her official acts are au- 
thenticated and accredited. In colonial 
Maryland to every deed granting lands 
by the Proprietary, who held the fee 
therein, to the colonist settlers, was sus- 
pended by a piece of linen tape, a large 
wax seal, with the impression of both the 
obverse and the reverse of the Great Seal 
thereon. Upon the accession of William 



[Thirty-four] 



and. Mary to the throne of England, 
Maryland became a Royal Province and 
the Church of England became the es- 
tablished church of the Province. Dur- 
ing the sway of the Royal Governors, 
from 1692 to 1715 other seals came into 
use, but upon the restoration to Lord 
Baltimore in 1716 of the Province, "The 
Greater Seal at Arms" was again used. 
The convention of 1776 adopted the 
Great Seal of the Province as the Great 
Seal of the State, until a new one could 
be devised. Later, notably in 1794, and 
in 1817, many changes were made in it, 
but in 1876 a joint resolution of the 
Maryland Legislature was passed restor- 
ing the seal to the exact description 
given of it in Lord Baltimore's Commis- 
sion to Governor Stone on August 12, 
1648. 



IThirty-fivel 



THE LAND OFFICE BUILDING. 

In 1858, in order to relieve the crowd- 
ed condition of the State House, and to 
provide a safe place for the archives of 
the State, a large two-story brick build- 
ing was erected at the foot of the State 
House circle directly opposite the west 
end of Maryland avenue for the Com- 
missioner of the Land Office, who is the 
custodian of the land records, the chan- 
cer}^ and will records and other archives. 
In addition to the valuable papers pre- 
served in the Land Office, there are 
many maps and relics of colonial times 
of more than ordinary interest. This 
building was torn down in 1906. 

THE COURT OF APPEALS 
BUILDING. 

This handsome fire proof building, 
completed in 1906, stands on the west 
side of the Capitol. The rooms on the 
first floor are occupied by the offices of 
the Land Commissioner, the State Treas- 
urer, the State Tax Commissioner and 
the Commander of the State Fishery 
Force. The rooms on the second floor 



[Thirty -six] 



py S K> s K»s>>>s/>/s/v/s^ 



by the Court of Appeals and the State 
Library. Over the landing of the mas- 
sive marble stairway in this building is a 
handsome stained glass window, by Tif- 
fany & Co. of New York, depicting both 
the obverse and reverse of the Great Seal 
of ^Maryland under the proprietary gov- 
ernment of the Lords Baltimore. 

THE EXECUTIVE MANSION. 

The handsome home of the Governors 
of Maryland, with its ample grounds, is 
a credit to the State. The State having 
sold to the United States Government, 
in 1866, the old Executive Mansion that 
stood within the present Naval Acad- 
emy grounds, built this mansion during 
the administration of Governor Thomas 
Swann. It has cost the State about 
$250,000. 

THE TANEY STATUE. 

Immediately in front of the entrance 
to the State House stands the bronze 
statue of Eoger Brooke Taney (March 
17. 1777 — October 12, 1864), Chief 
Justice of the United States from 1836 
to 1861. This is the work of William 



[Thirty-sevenJ 



Henry Rinehart, a Maryland sculptor, 
and was unveiled on March 17, 1874, the 
anniversary of Taney's birth. Of this 
work Severn Teackle Wallis, in his mag- 
nificent address, said : ' ' The artist has 
chosen to present us his illustrious sub- 
ject in his robes of office, as we saw him 
when he sat in judgment. The statue is 
heroic, but with that exception the traits 
of nature are not altered or disguised. 
The weight of years that bent that ven- 
erable form has not been lightened, and 
the lines of care, and suffering, and 
thought, are as life traced them. The 
figure has been treated by the artist in 
the spirit of that noble and absolute sim- 
plicity which is the type of the highest 
order of greatness, and is, therefore, its 
grandest, though its most difficult, ex- 
pression in art. 



? 7 



OLD COLONIAL CANNON. 

On the northeast front of the old State 
House, mounted on a granite pedestal, is 
an old colonial iron cannon, being one of 
five guns which furnished the armament 
of the Ark and the Dove, the two pin- 
naces which brought over from England 



[Thirty-eight] 



the first Maryland pilgrims who landed 
at old Saint Mary's March 25th, 1634. 
When the colonial capitol was removed 
from St. Mary's to Annapolis, in 1694, 
these cannon were left to protect the 
fort there. The site of this fort was on 
a steep blnff, which, long prior to the 
American revolution, by the erosions of 
time, had gradually crumbled and wash- 
ed aw^ay, leaving these old cannon, that 
had toppled into the St. Mary's river, 
partially covered wdth sand and barna- 
cles to be corroded bv the salt water. It 
is a most interesting relic of the Mary- 
land pilgrims. 

HISTORICAL PAINTINGS IN 
STATE HOUSE. 
The most striking of these historical 
paintings hangs over the landing of the 
stairway in the annex to the Capitol. It 
represents General Washington resign- 
ing his military commission as Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the American Ar- 
mies, to the Continental Congress, then 
in session in the old Senate Chamber, on 
December 23, 1783. It was painted by 
Edwin White, of New York, and was 



iThirty-nineJ 



finished in 1859. It cost $6,000. The 
oldest historical painting in the State 
House was painted by Charles Willson 
Peale in 1785, pursuant to a resolution 
of November 20, 1781, in commemora- 
tion of the Surrender of the Army of 
Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, Ya., Oc- 
tober 19th, 1781. It contains life-size 
portraits of General Washington, the 
Marquis de Lafayette, and Col. Tench 
Tilghman, AYashington's confidential 
secretary and Aide- de- Camp, of whom 
he said: "He left as fair a reputation 
as ever belonged to a human character. ' ' 
In the Executive Chamber hangs a 
portrait of George Calvert, the first Lord 
Baltimore, 1582-1632, who secured the 
charter of Maryland. Dying before this 
charter had passed the seal, the colony 
was established under his son, Cecilius 
Calvert, second Lord Baltimore, in 1634. 
The portrait is a copy from the original 
bv Daniel Mvtens, a celebrated Dutch 
painter, who probably painted it be- 
tween 1623 and 1630, the period of his 
residence in England. It was presented 
to the State by John W. Garrett in 1882, 
who employed an artist named Yintner 



[Forty] 



to copy it from the original, then in the 
possession of Earl Vemlani, Glaston- 
bury, England. The artist, Frank B. 
Mayer, said of this portrait : ' ' Tlie head 
expresses refinement, intellect, and pa- 
tient endurance, revealing a life of noble 
endeavor clouded by disappointment 
and wounded sensilnlity ; the pose is dig- 
nified and the details of the costume 
carefullv elaborated. ' ' 

Planting of the colony of Maryland 
and the burning of the Peggy Stewart 
are two historical paintings of interest- 
ing subjects by a Maryland artist, Frank 
B. Mayer. The celebrated Maryland 
portrait painter, Charles Willson Pe^le, 
1741-1827, painted for the City of An- 
napolis portraits of the following early 
Governors of Maryland: Thomas John- 
son, AViiliam Paca, George Plater, Will- 
iam Smallwood, Samuel Sprigg, John H. 
Stone and John Eager Howard, in ex- 
change for a full length portrait of Ce- 
cilius Calvert, second Lord Baltimore, 
supposed to be the work of Van Dyck. 
This latter is now in the Pennsylvania 
Academy of Fine Arts, having been de- 
posited there by Titian Peale in 1877. 



IForiu-onc'] 



C. W. Peale also painted the full length 
allegorical portrait of William Pitt, Earl 
of Chatham. Mr. Peale describes this 
portrait as follows: 

''Mr. Pitt is here represented in a 
Roman dress, in the action of an orator, 
extending his right arm, and points ta 
the figure of Liberty, and holding a 
scroll in his left hand, on which is writ- 
ten, 'Magna Charta'; before him an al- 
tar with a civic crown on it and a flame 
rising, designate his zeal in the cause of 
Liberty. The altar is ornamented with 
the bust of Hampden and Sidney, and 
wreaths of oak leaves embrace them. In 
the background is a piece of elegant 
architecture, AVhitehall, in front of w^iich 
King Charles I. was beheaded." 

Mr. Peale states that he sold this por- 
trait to the State of Maryland for 200 
pounds. 

Frederick, Sixth Lord BaUimore, 
1731-1771. This painting is by an im- 
known hand, and it is even doubtful if 
it be a portrait of Frederick, as the name 
was not attached to the frame until 
1885. This portrait was originally the 
property of the City of Annapolis, and. 



[Fo7'ty-two] 



with several others, was turned over to 
the State for safekeeping during the 
Civil War. Ridgel}^ in his "Annals of 
Annapolis," speaks of a full-length por- 
trait of Charles, Third Lord Baltimore^ 
as being in possession of the city at that 
time (1841), and had another portrait 
been on the walls of the old Assembly 
Eoom, so careful a man would surely 
have mentioned it. Further, the bayonet 
scars, left by the Pennsylvania troops, 
show, conclusively, that this portrait was 
removed to save it from destruction, and 
there is no record of any other picture 
answering Ridgely's description. The 
features of this portrait are entirely un- 
like those of the engraving of Frederick 
in Vol. V of Walpole's Royal and Noble 
Authors. 

THE SIGNERS. 

Hanging on the walls of the spacious 
Rotunda of the old State House, two on 
either side, are the full-length portraits 
of Maryland's four signers of the Dec- 
laration of Independence, viz. : 

Charles Carroll of Carrollton — Dele- 
gate to the Continental Congress, 1776 ; 



[Forty-three'] 



United States Senator 1789-1792; bom 
in Annapolis in 1737 ; died in 1832, aged 
ninetj^-five. This portrait was painted 
by order of the General Assembly of 
1832, by Thomas Sully, a pupil of Ben- 
jamin West. 

William Paca— Born 1740; died 1799; 
delegate to Continental Congress 1774- 
1779 ; third Governor, 1782-1785 ; paint- 
ed by John B. Bordle}'. By joint resolu- 
tion No. 89, of the General Assembly of 
1834, the Governor was authorized to 
order full-length portraits of the signers, 
Paca, Chase and Stone. Resolution No. 
44, of 1835, shows that the work was 
done bv John B. Bordlev and authorizes 
the purchase of frames for these por- 
traits. 

Thomas Stone — Delegate to the Con- 
tinental Congress 1775-1779 and 1784- 
1785 ; born 1743 ; died 1787, aged forty- 
four vears. 

Samuel Chase — Delegate to the Con- 
tinental Congress 1774-1778 ; Associate 
Justice of the United States 1784-1785 ; 
Supreme Court 1796-1804; born 1741; 
died 1811, aged seventj^ j^ears. 



c 
c 
c c t 



[Forty-four] 



THE OLDEST STAR-SPANGLED 
BANNER. 

In the Flag Room in the old State 
Tlonse is the only Star-Spangled Banner 
in existence known to have been carried 
in battle during the War for Indepen- 
dence. 

This flag was carried by the Maryland 
troops during the War of the American 
Revolution, and is thought to be the old- 
est United States flag in existence made 
in accordance with the Act of Congress, 
June 14, 1777. 

It is positively known to have been 
carried as the Regimental Flag of the 
Third Maryland Regiment, under Col. 
John Eager Howard, at the battle of 
Cowpens, S. C, in January, 1778, in 
which battle it was carried by William 
Bachelor. Bachelor was wounded in this 
battle and sent to his home in Baltimore, 
bringing with him the flag. 

After the death of Bachelor, which oc- 
curred March 28, 1781, the flag remained 
in his familv, and when the British in- 
vaded Maryland in 1814, this flag was 



[Forty-five'] 




again carried, at the Battle of North 
Point, by Bachelor's son, William, a 
member of the Twenty-seventh Regiment 
of Maryland Militia. 

This William Bachelor carried the 
flag in all the parades of the Twenty-sev- 
enth Regiment up to about 1840, when 
the regiment organization expired. Be- 
ing a member of the Old Defenders As- 
sociation, he carried the flag in all pa- 
rades and functions of the association as 
long as he was able to take part, and 
died in 1885, at the age of ninety-nine. 

The flag remained in the possession of 
liis family until 1894, when it was pre- 
sented to the Society of the War of 1812, 
the successor of the Old Defenders As- 
sociation, and by that society preserved 
until presented to the State of Mary- 
land, at Annapolis, October 19, 1907. 



[Forty-six] 




THE UNITED STATES NAVAL 
ACADEMY 



The Hon. George Bancroft, while Sec- 
retary of the Navy, under President 
James K. Polk, signalized his adminis- 
tration by the establishment of the 
United States Naval Academy at An- 
napolis, upon the site of an abandoned 
army post known as Fort Severn. An- 
napolis was chosen as the most suitable 
location for such an institution, and 
academic routine began Oct. 10th, 18-15. 

Captain Franklin Buchanan, of Mary- 
land, was its first Superintendent. Dur- 
ing the Civil War, 1861- '65, lie was an 
admiral in command of the Confederate 
Navy. Since 1900 the U. S. Government 
has expended ten millions of dollars in 
the erection of magnificent buildings for 
the accommodation and education of 
young men for officers of the United 
States Navy. Annapolis can now boast 
of the finest and best techiiical naval 
scliool in the world. 




IForly-.'^rvrn} 



.■^ 



PRESS OF 

THE ANNAPOLIS PUBLISHING CO. 

ANN'ArOLTS, MD, 
1922 



■H vr'"!- '.-■■.■.■. -^.'. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



HI 



014 3B5 704 8 



